136 AV BIRD-LAND. 



he seems to be fond of haunting the cloudy canopy, 

 toying with the wind. 



His call, as he tilts overhead, is difficult to repre- 

 sent phonetically, both the vowels and consonants 

 being provokingly elusive and hard to catch. To 

 me he seems usually to say Spe-ah. Sometimes the S 

 appears to be omitted, or is enunciated very slightly, 

 while at other times his call seems to have a de- 

 cidedly sibilant beginning. On several occasions he 

 seemed to pronounce the syllable Scape. 



I had often watched the marvellous flight of these 

 birds, as they passed like living silhouettes across 

 the sky ; but they had always seemed so shy and 

 unapproachable that, prior to the summer of 1891, 

 I had despaired of ever finding a night-hawk's nest. 

 However, one evening in June, while stalking about 

 in the marsh, I suddenly became aware of a large 

 bird fluttering uneasily about me in the gathering 

 darkness. Presently it was joined by its mate, and 

 then the two birds circled and hovered about, 

 often coming into uncomfortable proximity with my 

 head, and muttering under their breath, Chuckle ! 

 chuckle ! Several times one of them alighted for a 

 few moments on the rail-fence near by, and then 

 resumed its circular flight. Even in the darkness I 

 recognized that my uncanny companions were night- 

 hawks, and felt convinced that there must be a nest 

 in the neighborhood, or they would not display so 

 much anxiety. It was too late to discover their 

 secret that evening, and, besides, I really felt a slight 

 chill creeping up my back, with those dark, ghostly 



